Internationalisation and New Public Management in Higher Education Reform in Mainland China and Finland

In the past three decades, many changes alongside with the globalisation occurred. The global trend promoted the global education movement, which stood on the outcome-based education reform, and then the movement evolved the education systems with the management thoughts of low cost but effectiveness education and high quality. Meanwhile, the international activities among higher education systems became more active; transboundary academic service from universities had been delivered rapidly. The scope of the mobility of students, scholars, and teachers became wider, more educational structure and culture networking transported and cross-border academic collaborated. The current research explores the higher education reform in mainland China and Finland in the past decades, it has tended to examine closely about the structure reform in the two different social systems, which were under the influence of the globalisation, internationalisation and New Public Management. Furthermore, to find out convergences of the reform between the two nations. The research applies qualitative research method. The qualitative content analysis presents the two higher education systems’ distinct reform process and reform contexts along with the line of globalisation, internationalisation and New Public Management, which answers the how-research questions. Later the research displays the findings and convergences by exhibiting the policies and practices in universities’ administration. The results of the study manifest the internationalised universities in both countries are heavily transformed by globalisation. The market-oriented higher education institutions, modified administration structures and highly autonomous universities governance in both systems are the products of New Public Management.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Animals depicted in jade of the 13th to 14th centuries in China

The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate, with regard to the relationship between man and nature, how and why animals were depicted in jade carving, compared to other arts during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) in China. In this way the thesis seeks to make a direct contribution to an understanding of the significance of animals in various aspects of art and life throughout the Yuan Dynasty. The former idea, that the Mongols, as nomads and forest hunters, their illiterate status and barbaric customs effectively discouraged their interest and ability in scholarly and artistic matters, used to be widely accepted. There are much more negative comments and "matter-of-fact" historical records of the Mongol rulers in China to demonstrate how true they were that the Mongols were nothing but a group of fearsome and vicious barbarians. In recent years, although this prejudice has been partially reassessed, there are still significant gaps to fulfil, to look into and to comprehend about art in the Yuan period. It is clear, however, that several aspects of the Mongols' tastes and concepts of art differed from those of the people they invaded, conquered and ruled. Art of human being has long been existed ever since the man appeared on this planet, no matter how primitive. Their sense of art and work of art were, however, born together with the nation themselves the very first moment, even without any understanding and appreciation of the rest of the world. The first and foremost aim of the present thesis is to demonstrate the interested scholar of Yuan jade (and indeed Yuan art in general) with a preliminary manual, which assembles, as comprehensively as possible, all relevant information available on early Yuan jade developed during the 13th to 14th centuries. These will reveal how and why Mongols used their most treasured material - jade - to depict the favourite subjects in their style of life - namely animals. Secondly, the thesis will also present a series of potential clues, not only to the specific understanding of Yuan jade animals, but also of Yuan art and culture as a whole. Finally, the analysis will indicate how the Yuan style was influenced by the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and how it in turn subsequently had an influence on Ming aesthetics (1368-1644). The number of jade animals known of the Yuan Dynasty remains very small, largely due to many surviving jade objects and heirlooms are difficult to be properly dated because of lack of evidence and definite provenance. Furthermore, the Yuan Dynasty was extremely short in duration (98 years), and it was ruled by people of steppes coming fi om far away in the North to China, which has always been largely segregated from mainstream of full historical studies in China, let alone much cultural appreciation by the Chinese. The framework and conceptual tools in this thesis for the analysis of the animals in three-dimentional forms of art derive from many historians, artists, scholars and zoologists. Studies of history of art based on artefacts are a scientific research. It is different from traditional art appreciation and religious art fetishism. Its aim is to try to understand insights of arts by using comparative sciences. It needs a wide range of knowledge to understand every possible aspect of culture and arts during the Yuan Dynasty, then it goes finally to the artefacts themselves

Chinese herbal medicine Guizhi Fuling Formula for treatment of uterine fibroids : a systematic review of randomized clinical trials

Background: Guizhi Fuling Formula is widely applied for uterine fibroids in China. Many clinical trials are reported. This study assessed the efficacy and safety of Guizhi Fuling Formula for the treatment of uterine fibroids. Methods: PubMed, Cochrane CENTRAL, EMBASE, and four Chinese databases were searched through May 2013. We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that tested Guizhi Fuling Formula for uterine fibroids, compared with no intervention, placebo, pharmaceutical medication, or other Chinese patent medicines approved by the State Food and Drug Administration of China. Authors extracted data and assessed the quality independently. We applied RevMan 5.2.0 software to analyse data of included randomised trials. Results: A total of 38 RCTs involving 3816 participants were identified. The methodological quality of the included trials was generally poor. Meta-analyses demonstrated that Guizhi Fuling Formula plus mifepristone were more effective than mifepristone alone in reducing the volume of fibroids (in total volume of multiple fibroids, MD −19.41 cm3, 95% CI −28.68 to −10.14; in average volume of multiple fibroids, MD −1.00 cm3, 95% CI −1.23 to −0.76; in average volume of maximum fibroids, MD −3.35 cm3, 95% CI −4.84 to −1.87, I2 = 93%, random effects model). Guizhi Fuling Formula significantly improved symptoms of dysmenorrhea either when it was used alone (RR 2.27, 95% CI 1.04 to 4.97) or in combination with mifepristone (RR 2.35, 95% CI 1.15 to 4.82). No serious adverse events were reported. Conclusions: Guizhi Fuling Formula appears to have additional benefit based on mifepristone treatment in reducing volume of fibroids. However, due to high risk of bias of the trials, we could not draw confirmative conclusions on its benefit. Future clinical trials should be well-designed and avoid the issues that are identified in this study

Single-Image-Based Deep Learning for Segmentation of Early Esophageal Cancer Lesions

Accurate segmentation of lesions is crucial for diagnosis and treatment of early esophageal cancer (EEC). However, neither traditional nor deep learning-based methods up to today can meet the clinical requirements, with the mean Dice score - the most important metric in medical image analysis - hardly exceeding 0.75. In this paper, we present a novel deep learning approach for segmenting EEC lesions. Our approach stands out for its uniqueness, as it relies solely on a single image coming from one patient, forming the so-called "You-Only-Have-One" (YOHO) framework. On one hand, this "one-image-one-network" learning ensures complete patient privacy as it does not use any images from other patients as the training data. On the other hand, it avoids nearly all generalization-related problems since each trained network is applied only to the input image itself. In particular, we can push the training to "over-fitting" as much as possible to increase the segmentation accuracy. Our technical details include an interaction with clinical physicians to utilize their expertise, a geometry-based rendering of a single lesion image to generate the training set (the \emph{biggest} novelty), and an edge-enhanced UNet. We have evaluated YOHO over an EEC data-set created by ourselves and achieved a mean Dice score of 0.888, which represents a significant advance toward clinical applications

A systematic database for microbial data collection management

Microbiology research is one of the research fields that deal with a huge volume of microbial culture collection data which needs to be preserved, due to its importance as a key resource center for obtaining, identifying, producing, preserving, cataloging, and distributing culture data of various microbes. Currently, the collection and storing of microbial culture data is performed manually via various data transfers into record books, logbooks, or spreadsheets. However, the manual process seems to be impractical as it is highly prone to human error and time-consuming, aside from the struggle of managing and retrieving the data. Therefore, to address this issue, we have successfully designed and developed a customized database for microbial data collection that allows users to store, access, visualize and retrieve information in a single platform. The agile development approach has been implemented during the software development process allowing more flexibility during the development phase yet managing to fulfill the functional requirements of the end-users. The front end is created using the Bootstrap framework, an open-source and powerful platform for developing user-friendly web pages and web applications. It is connected to the back-end MySQL database as a relational database management system to organize structured data. As a result, the developed microbial culture collection has eliminated manual data entry and accelerated the data retrieval process. The platform is a one-stop platform for microbiologists when dealing with microbial culture collection data

In silico genome-wide computational profiling of non-coding RNA in oil palm Elaeis guineensis and its pathogen Ganoderma boninense

Oil palm plantation was first established in Malaysia in 1917. Since then, the oil palm industry in Malaysia flourished especially following the shifting of Deli Dura palm to Tenera palm in the 1960s, which contributed to a 30% increase in yield. However, the outbreak of basal stem rot disease caused by Ganoderma boninense has caused substantial yield losses. With no known cure to date, extensive molecular studies were conducted to better understand the underlying mechanism of G. boninense infection and the role of protein-coding genes as regulators in oil palms against G. boninense. The studies have demonstrated the importance of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) in the interaction between oil palm and G. boninense. However, there is still limited genome-scale identification for ncRNAs in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis jacq.) and its pathogen, G. boninense. In this study, we focused on the identification of small and medium-sized non-coding RNA using a computational approach and managed to predict 2,233 ncRNAs and 369 ncRNAs in the E. guineensis and G. boninense genomes, respectively. The identified ncRNAs include transfer RNA (tRNA), ribosomal RNA (rRNA), small nuclear RNA (snRNA), small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA), and microRNA (miRNA). Although the number may be far fewer than the real number, the predicted ncRNAs here represent an almost complete dataset of small and medium-sized ncRNA in both the E. guineensis and G. boninense genomes. The information obtained may be useful to tackle the issue of G. boninense attack on oil palm plantations

Imaging-guided synergistic targeting-promoted photo-chemotherapy against cancers by methotrexate-conjugated hyaluronic acid nanoparticles

Abstract(#br)A combination of chemotherapy and photothermal therapy (PTT) against cancer, overcoming the intrinsic limitations of single-modal chemotherapy or PTT, has emerged as a promising strategy to achieve synergistic therapeutic effect. However, the lack of precise drug delivery and intelligent drug release based on photo-chemotherapy at specific tumor sites remained a challenge. Hence, the both tumor-specific targeting molecule (methotrexate) and ligand (hyaluronic acid)-introduced, glutathione-responsive amphiphiles (deoxycholic acid-hyaluronic acid-methotrexate, DA-SS-HA-MTX) were developed for synchronous delivery of indocyanine green (ICG) and doxorubicin (DOX). The as-synthesized DOX/ICG@DSHM remarkably improved the intracellular drug uptake and accumulation owing to both the CD44/folate receptors-mediated synergistic targeting and the glutathione-triggered rapid drug release. Moreover, DOX/ICG@DSHM efficiently accumulated at the tumor sites, realizing the notable tumor ablation under the guidance of dual-modal optical imaging. Taken together, this study provided a promising nanotheranostic agent for imaging-guided chemo-photothermal combination therapy

Short Telomeres Compromise β-Cell Signaling and Survival

The genetic factors that underlie the increasing incidence of diabetes with age are poorly understood. We examined whether telomere length, which is inherited and known to shorten with age, plays a role in the age-dependent increased incidence of diabetes. We show that in mice with short telomeres, insulin secretion is impaired and leads to glucose intolerance despite the presence of an intact β-cell mass. In ex vivo studies, short telomeres induced cell-autonomous defects in β-cells including reduced mitochondrial membrane hyperpolarization and Ca2+ influx which limited insulin release. To examine the mechanism, we looked for evidence of apoptosis but found no baseline increase in β-cells with short telomeres. However, there was evidence of all the hallmarks of senescence including slower proliferation of β-cells and accumulation of p16INK4a. Specifically, we identified gene expression changes in pathways which are essential for Ca2+-mediated exocytosis. We also show that telomere length is additive to the damaging effect of endoplasmic reticulum stress which occurs in the late stages of type 2 diabetes. This additive effect manifests as more severe hyperglycemia in Akita mice with short telomeres which had a profound loss of β-cell mass and increased β-cell apoptosis. Our data indicate that short telomeres can affect β-cell metabolism even in the presence of intact β-cell number, thus identifying a novel mechanism of telomere-mediated disease. They implicate telomere length as a determinant of β-cell function and diabetes pathogenesis

Protocol for the PreventIT feasibility randomised controlled trial of a lifestyle-integrated exercise intervention in young older adults

Introduction The European population is rapidly ageing. In order to handle substantial future challenges in the healthcare system, we need to shift focus from treatment towards health promotion. The PreventIT project has adapted the Lifestyle-integrated Exercise (LiFE) programme and developed an intervention for healthy young older adults at risk of accelerated functional decline. The intervention targets balance, muscle strength and physical activity, and is delivered either via a smartphone application (enhanced LiFE, eLiFE) or by use of paper manuals (adapted LiFE, aLiFE). Methods and analysis The PreventIT study is a multicentre, three-armed feasibility randomised controlled trial, comparing eLiFE and aLiFE against a control group that receives international guidelines of physical activity. It is performed in three European cities in Norway, Germany, and The Netherlands. The primary objective is to assess the feasibility and usability of the interventions, and to assess changes in daily life function as measured by the Late-Life Function and Disability Instrument scale and a physical behaviour complexity metric. Participants are assessed at baseline, after the 6 months intervention period and at 1 year after randomisation. Men and women between 61 and 70 years of age are randomly drawn from regional registries and respondents screened for risk of functional decline to recruit and randomise 180 participants (60 participants per study arm). Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval was received at all three trial sites. Baseline results are intended to be published by late 2018, with final study findings expected in early 2019. Subgroup and further in-depth analyses will subsequently be published. Trial registration number NCT03065088; Pre-results